Mike Landess is back in Denver, KWGN

[LittleFloyd]

In a shake-up at KWGN-2 and KDVR-31, veteran TV news anchor Mike Landess will come out of retirement and return to Colorado to co-anchor the KWGN news with Deborah Takahara, who will move between Fox31 and Channel 2.
The long-term goal is to return KWGN to its former glory, rather than regard it as an afterthought, the stepsister to KDVR.

Landess, who builds motorcycles, cars and houses when not delivering the news, sees himself as merely “a contractor” building the new KWGN project, designed by station managers whom he knew in previous jobs with Gannett.

KWGN will launch a 4 p.m. newscast July 18. Both the 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. newscasts on KWGN will be anchored by Landess and Takahara. The 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. newscast on Fox31 will be co-anchored by Jeremy Hubbard and Aristea Brady. Mike Barz and Takahara will anchor the 10 p.m. newscast on Fox 31.

Breaking news will be handled by Landess and Barz interchangeably on both stations, according to Holly Gauntt, vice president of News and Digital Content for KDVR-KWGN.

Landess, a longtime fixture on Denver TV at KUSA and later at KMGH, will move back from East Texas, where he resumed working in TV after retiring from KMGH in 2014. As an anchor at KYTX in Tyler, Texas, he has been near children and grandchildren. His wife has been in Fort Collins; for 18 months they’ve been going back and forth. ” ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ — a great novel, but not a great way to live,” he said.

“I still love the business. I love the industry. I put up with the other stuff — the day to day, trying to get from point A to point B, fixing mistakes, the technical issues. When you hit that home run, it is such a rush it makes me want to keep going on.”

He’s more intrigued than fazed by changes in the industry as it attempts to attract younger audiences:

“The whole thing with millennials is such a giant question mark,” he said. “Social media is a wild, wild West, a crazy frontier.”

[radiodude]

I feel so sorry for Debra, a new mom and now they are going to be an earlier news cast at 4?! Tribune is really trying to get ahead of the game aren't they?
To break up Jeremy and Debra? That is not a good idea! The whole reason why they are together at 9, is because they work very well together! They are like what Ron and Libby was!
Landess must have really missed the news business to come out of retirement? I sure hope this doesn't drive Debra to quit her job there! I am sure it can be very stressful on raising a family and
dealing with this crazyness over there!

[Rob]

From TV Spy:



Longtime Denver anchor Mike Landess will return from Texas to anchor a new 4 p.m. newscast at KWGN, beginning July 18.

Landess, who spent nearly 30 years anchoring at KUSA and KMGH, left Denver in 2014, returning to his childhood home in East Texas and taking a job at Tyler CBS affiliate KYTX.

“My motto is ‘Be where you’re supposed to be’,” said Landess. “And the opportunity to be with friends and colleagues at KWGN called my name.” At KWGN, Landess will co-anchor with Deborah Takahara and meteorologist Matt Makens.

Landess will also contribute to breaking news coverage on sister station KDVR.

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